The Best Fluffy Pancakes recipe you will fall in love with. Full of tips and tricks to help you make the best pancakes.
It has long been said that we learn by doing, and this is particularly true of hands-on activities. There is something inherently engaging about working with our hands, and the act of physically manipulating a material, operating a tool, or practicing a technique seems to focus our minds in a way that merely reading or watching does not. Furthermore, many physical actions have very tangible consequences that are apparent to our senses — we can see whether the joint we just made is strong or weak, or whether the plant we pruned is responding well to the cut. This direct feedback loop is essential to the learning process, and to retaining knowledge over the long-term.
Beyond the value of hands-on work in engaging our attention and allowing us to see the fruits of our labor, engaging in a craft also helps us learn to slow down and observe. Many activities simply can’t be hurried — if you try to force a piece of wood through a machine too quickly, it will bind or break; if you don’t allow a enough time to pass for glue to dry or a joint to set, your project will fall apart. These kinds of physical limitations help us cultivate patience, and encourage us to observe and adjust as we go, rather than barreling forward and risking catastrophe. As we work at a task and begin to recognize patterns and potential pitfalls, we become more confident in our ability to accomplish it successfully.
Crafts also teach us to troubleshoot and solve problems. The reality is that nothing ever goes according to plan — our carefully-laid designs must often be altered partway through a project as we realize that some element is not working as intended; the materials we are working with may not behave as expected; we may discover that we’ve made an error in measurement or assembly. In these situations, we are forced to think on our feet, using our knowledge to adjust to the new circumstances and come up with a solution. This kind of logical improvisation is an invaluable skill that can benefit many other areas of our lives.
Finally, one of the benefits of learning a hands-on skill is the sense of pride and accomplishment that comes from creating something with our own two hands. There is something special about holding a physical object that we have made ourselves — it is tangible evidence of the effort and knowledge that we have gained. Completing a project gives us a sense of pride and self-worth that can motivate us to continue learning and working at a craft.
In an age when so many of us are accustomed to instant gratification, to doing things the quick and easy way, engaging in hands-on crafts can provide us with a rare kind of depth. We come to realize that mastery of any skill takes time — it is built upon countless tiny mistakes and successes, and upon gradually deepening our understanding of a processes and techniques. By engaging in hands-on crafts, we gain knowledge that will stay with us for a lifetime — the kind of knowledge that is rooted not merely in intellectual understanding, but in physical reality.